Here's the rules of this part:Each participant in the draft will rank his or her top 7 favorite bands in order, with 1st being the top pick.
You may use whatever criteria you like to decide your rankings.
You may not vote for your own band.
Each 1st place vote will count for 7 points, 2nd place = 6 points, 3rd = 5 points, etc.

Below you will find each person's completed band, along with their band name (bolded) and their description/sales pitch/bio.
Once you have ranked your top 8, post them in a comment in this thread. Please use the username AND the band name in your rankings.PLEASE QUOTE ME WITH YOUR RANKINGS SO I DO NOT MISS IT.

Once the Top 5 bands have been determined, we will open the voting up to the entire AP.net community to determine an overall champion.

If you didn't participate, feel free to comment here and say which band you like!

Blending the folky sides of Isaac Brock's Modest Mouse and Ugly Casanova with the country lean of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Humble Hands is a group focused on some of the best songwriting of our day. Kevin O'Connor's dynamic drumming and Bryan Donahue's melodic bass lines create a strong rhythmic backing, and Ryan Delahoussaye's violin work maintains a balance between providing sweeping harmonic changes and grabbing attention with memorable instrumental melodies. Bringing both in-your-face vocals and softer balladry, Humble Hands can be powerfully understated one moment and exorbitantly danceable the next. It's a little twangy, and a little sweet, with powerful lyricism and emotion as only Brock and Oberst can express it. You're going to like it.

“The transcendence of genre and style is crucial for artistic minds grow. There must be a level of familiarity but how can you improve without pushing past your comfort zone? For me, when I was approached to sing for American Fever Dreams, I was reluctant since quite a bit of time’s past since I’ve really been active. But I took a step back, and I listened to these bands. You know, collectively they’ve been going at it for almost as long as I had, which just does not happen for most artists. And the thing is, they’re all great at what they do - phenomenal, even. I came to a point, lying somewhere between nostalgia and ambition, where I just could not say no. I’ve had success in this that I never imagined possible, but based on projects that I had created myself. In my eyes, it’s a bit challenging to join something that grew on it’s own, loaded with new ideas, new faces, but it’s just as rewarding. The band just commands attention with intricate musicality. This outspoken attribute, where no one holds back but no one overpowers each other, is just mesmerizing. I remember hearing Converge for the first time, and I was floored. After a few listens, I began to focus and hone in on Kurt [Ballou, guitarist]’s technique; it was very forward and fully developed. I loved that trait and [Stephen, bassist] Micciche had the same thing going and our drummer [Aric Improta] did too. They all reminded me of what Tool did, but with a distinct edge that was very progressive but relentless all the same, and it just ignited a cognitive reassurance that something special was happening. By the time I began to work on my part, melodically and lyrically, it all was just completely unified. Beyond that, we spent all of our time enhancing the demos, with various elements like unorthodox percussion and odd instrumentation, say, for instance, a bit of saxophone here and even some theremin there. Those facets didn’t detract from anything, either which I found brilliant. Kurt and Aric went all out in the sense that they brought subtlety that accented tones and melodies that nobody knew were even there, while Stephen experimented and gave us this iron backbone. It’s incredible. It was that artistic growth that I had hoped to find, and much, much more. It broke the disillusionment I was facing. I’ve poured virtually every emotion and mindset I had into the music we wrote, which created a motif, a repeated conveyance of self-identity and reflection. It’s very versatile. I was forced into doing all of that and came out feeling invigorated, which I hope in turn is the sensation listeners get when they hear our debut album, recorded with Matt Goldman at Glow In The Dark. He really brought the songs to life after tweaking arrangements or working out any minute kink. Every little detail was captured, everything sounds rich, crisp and organic, and we couldn’t be happier with the result. And overall, I couldn’t be happier with American Fever Dreams.” - Maynard James Keenan, vocalist

Though the choices might be boring and the pairings a little strange, the potential for this band is incredible, in large part due to the talent of each member. Peart and Flea on drums and bass allow for almost any rhythm section, regardless of difficulty or technicality. I think the pairing of Andrew W.K. and Reznor in particular would allow for some really interesting piano/synth driven rock masterpieces. Andrew W.K. is a very talented pianist while he's not just singing about partying (though, naturally, there'd have to be some songs about partying, which would be even louder, bigger, and better with this backing band). The more technical/progressive sound of Swan's guitar playing in DGD combined with Reznor's style would also create some very interesting prog/industrial rock hits. Andrew W.K. and Reznor would share the majority of vocal duties, but Swan would be available for an occasional screaming part in some of the heavier songs. Though they seem like an unlikely group, the possibilities are endless for this quintet, and I'd be extremely excited to see what they'd come up with. All five of them are musical geniuses in their own rights, and there's no doubt we'd be in for a treat with all of them working together.

Jason Butler has always enjoyed and respected jazzier music, something proven by the fact that he titled a track on letlive's last album "Homeless Jazz." letlive. has some of those crazier, spastic moments, but Butler wanted a band that used sophisticated time signatures and other unusual melodies and combined it with some jazzy improvisation. Teaming up with guitarist Nick Reinhart was obvious given Reinhart's technical prowess in Tera Melos, and Zach Hill was looking for another project similar to Hella to work on to have something entirely separate from Death Grips. Those three then contacted Brian Cook from Russian Circles, who was very interested in moving back somewhat to the mathiness of Botch. The guys all then sent their idea to renowned saxophonist Colin Stetson (based on his very experimental solo work), not expecting an answer, but Stetson responded eager to see where it would go. He and Butler immediately bonded, and Stetson then agreed to become a member of the group. The group decided to name themselves Homeless Jazz, based after Butler's song of the same title.

The band focuses on Butler's energy and insanity, and uses that to burst out into instrumental segments that few musical collaborations could accomplish. The band often moves into quieter interludes where Stetson's saxophone sputters around note after note and Hill's drums surprisingly match him note to note. But the most memorable moments of the bands' soon to be released self-titled album are the parts where every band member is simply going insane, blasting notes after notes, creating impossible to follow rhythms that are memorable for the sheer technicality behind them. Homeless Jazz's debut will surely be one of the most technical, but polarizing releases of the year.

This is the band that will put the taste of vodka in your mouth and hair on your back, two things every man, woman, and child wants. With Croom dominating the heavy sections of the music with his spastic shrieks and guttural growls, Jerry Jones croons his way into the softer measures. Both vocalists contribute to the lyrics, with Croom injecting his definitive imagery, pop-culture references, and dark sense of humor into Jones' brilliant storytelling ability. Minette brings to the table his blistering riffs, soothing strumming, and melodies both based on and supplemented with piano, while Dan Briggs weaves in-and-out subtly with his independent but melodically-gorgeous bass. Chris Pennie sets the foundation for it all with ferocious drumming, adeptly managing to provide a background for even the most non-rhythmical of musical scenarios. Each musician introduces hardcore complemented by unexpected influences in jazz, classical, funk, and blues, melding it all together into one hot mess of headbangin', hip-shakin', foot-tappin', get-nasty music. Ten seconds after an acoustic-guitar solo reminiscent of Italian classical music, you might be gyrating violently to a off-time breakdown with lyrics quoting Wu-Tang Clan, only to chase it immediately with a ragtime-esque howl. No holds barred, boys and girls. No holds barred.

On a whim several years ago, a Guiness heiress invited Glen Hansard, then busking, to Van Morrison's birthday party. There, Hansard worked up the nerve to approach Morrison, who, though at first his sometimes crotchety self, eventually engaged in a lengthy musical conversation. Ever since that fateful night, the pair have kept in touch, batting around the idea of collaboration. But with whom? Though at first the suggestions for potential bandmates were facetious ("Ozzy Osbourne!"; "Bruce Springsteen!"), Morrison eventually thought of Dr. John, the blues pianist and singer. Hansard loved the idea and immediately began racking his brain for bassists and drummers. He immediately proposed Bryan Devendorf as a drummer. Though Morrison had never listened to the band, he gave Boxer a listen and quickly gave his approval. After contacting both Devendorf and Dr. John and confirming their interest in the project, the pair racked their brains for a suitable bassist. Morrison came up with Jack Bruce of Cream, an idea of which Hansard wholeheartedly approved, and the five soon came together to jam. An immediate musical chemistry was palpable to all the musicians and so they immediately began recording. The result? A full-length album, to be released in the summer of 2013.

Fronted by John Darnielle, whose musical poetry is widely renowned as some of the best in the business, Borne Back Ceaselessly features an all-star cast of musical backing for Darnielle. Kristján Páll Kristjánsson of the folk-pop sensation Of Monsters and Men plays bass in the band, while Matt Uychich completes the band’s rhythm section, while also taking the titles as the band’s youngest member. Franz Nicolay, who has newfound time on his hands after recently leaving his former band The Hold Steady, provides his incredible multi-instrumental talents, while Andy McKee, who is most known for his slap guitar techniques rounds out the band’s lineup by melding his own unique style with the rest of the bands exceptional talents. Borne Back Ceaselessly’s self-titled debut album is a upbeat folk rock tour de force that explores the same uneasiness about the future in its music as the line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal classic The Great Gatsby for which the band was named. With heart-on-sleeve introspection from Darnielle, Borne Back Ceaselessly has the ability to speak to the many growing up disenfranchised by the technological generation

Imagine descending below the depths of the ocean in the dead of night, surrounded by nothing but dark blue while being submerged further into the darkness. The water wraps around you, enveloping you, letting you know its there, but never comforting you. It has an oddly warm quality to it, but the feelings it elicits are cold and distant. The life around you treats you like a stranger, a foreign being in a foreign land. You're alienated, you're lost, you're alone. These are just a few of the qualities the music of A Good Beginning may bring about in you. It's ambient, it's post-rock, it's shoegaze, it's experimental, it's electronic, it's anything you want it to be. It ebbs and flows seamlessly with a soundscape backdrop reminiscent of Loscil's solo work with Jonsi's vocals weaving in and out of the sounds. The keys provided by Gonzales play into the atmosphere, the drums of Girt allow the sound to let loose when it calls for it and Gonzales's bass makes the rhythm section a beast all its own. Silberman's contributions on guitar and harp let it die back down when necessary, and his vocals lay behind Jonsi's to give it a certain texture that's hard to find in ambient music with vocals. This isn't music made for easy listening, this is late at night alone in your bedroom with the lights off music. This is the music that touches you the most.

"We basically holed up in Noah's place in Portugal for three months and did a ton of really, really good drugs and made even more music. It was a really crazy experience, first off because we had people from four different countries who spoke three different languages. We all agreed on one thing though: that we wanted to make music that sounded like nothing that we had ever heard before. This music is truly supposed to be 'space rock,' it's the sound of the spheres talking to each other. Does that sound like a prickish thing to say or what? [laughs] But anyway, it's not really confined to any genre, either. I for one was really stoked to work on something outside the world of 'rock music,' because I'd kind of been going in that direction with the last Tame Impala record anyway. Having Ulrich there really helped me branch out of my comfort zone and look at the music a little differently. And Justin obviously has a fantastic ear for things in the studio, and his voice is so other-worldly that it fit really well with the music, especially when we manipulated and played around with it a lot. Just don't expect us to play any of this shit live, because we have no fucking idea how we did it." --Kevin Parker on the new project

Dynamic musicians. Dynamic musicians are the foundation of Hashtag Yolo. With 4 singers, 3 guitarists, 3 bassists, and 3 drummers, Hashtag Yolo. is set to recreate music forever. Playing everything from mathy rock in 32/4 time signatures to synth driven pop rock to grunge with synth and piano. They may sound awful but with 3 talented singers, a pop punk drummer and a sarcastic hipster, Hashtag Yolo is everything you don't imagine and nothing you can't see.

So, Aaron Weiss and Nate Ruess? Genius right? Right. Anyway, in my head I'm thinking it would be a project that dabbles with quite a few different sounds but I think it'd be more on the aggressive side then people would expect by looking at it. I've always loved the few instances Nate's really pushed himself vocally in the few more aggressive sections (for his bands at least) he's been a part of like on "If Work Permits" or "Take Your Time" and I initially thought it would be pretty interesting to hear him follow that a bit more but although I was focusing on a more aggressive direction I still wanted some more varied instrumentation then just guitars/drums and I've always been a huge fan of accordion and trumpets and I thought they could potentially work with the sound I was going for, either being implemented subtly behind the aggressive instrumentation or in softer sections of songs and other songs that wouldn't be aggressive at all. I'd want the project to be pretty diverse in terms of sound, they wouldn't just make an album of 11 songs that sound the same. In terms of vocals I think Nate would be the main vocalist with Aaron focusing more on screaming certain parts as backup although I'm sure he'd take the lead on a few tracks. Ellie would mainly stick to more atmospheric background vocals, she wouldn't have much of a presence vocally. She would add another dimension to the band though adding piano, keyboards and synthesizers to the mix, obviously not on every song but I'm sure there would be a time and place they could be used incredibly effectively. Frank was an easy choice, I haven't been in a band draft yet without picking a My Chem member, I'm too big a fanboy. The guy would be perfect for my band though, he can play aggressive shit, soft shit and everything in between. Omar's just a great drummer. So that was my way of trying to explain what's going on in my head with my band, it's a weird idea but I think they're all fantastic musicians so they'd make it work. I don't think I've conveyed it very well because I suck at expressing my thoughts, especially musical ones, and especially in writing. I tried. At least I have a great band name.

"So the idea was basically to do a concept album about tripping on ketamine. It only lasts an hour, but its mad hallucinogenic and a lot people say they get to see God. So obviously that was intriguing, and we put together this album to reflect that experience in real time. You start in a club and the songs are pretty standard, but as they progress every thing gets weirder and darker. You have me and Danny doing verses and Grimes singing through the whole thing, but the vibe slowly shifts, the music is what changes, we have a lot of talented producers so we were able to really warp the sound from track to track and within songs actually. Right in the middle of the album, in between a song actually, there's the moment where you "see God", we tried to make that sound like nothing we've ever heard. Then from then on the songs lighten up and everything gets back to normal, only a little off, you're still kind of tripping but really you're a different person because of the experience. We set out to write a soundtrack to capture the journey, and I think we succeeded in that definitely." - Flying Lotus on new project

"Time is not just measured but is a tool of measurement. People become fascinated with measuring time instead of letting the time we've spent measure ourselves and what we've done with it. I look at this Chimera of artists that we have assembled and like to think that we've spent our time well, and it has paid off for us. Aretha, Andre, and I have become more than just household names, we have created movements, we have not stretched truths in our music, we have created and exhibited our own. So what's left to do when you've done it all? Celebrate it and show what you can do. Throw all commercial aspects out the window, we've already conquered those. This is "PSA" at Madison Square Garden. We're here to show off. We're here to have Aretha belt, not write a hit. We're here to hear Andre and I show off our abilities in syncopation, not tell a specific story or stick to some theme. Andre has truly taken the role of the leader of Sophos, with his production leading the way for our trinity. araabMUZIK and Louis Johnson are here to enforce it, to take these "this can't get any better" moments and make them better. So should you be afraid that this isn't Illmatic, or ATLiens, or (definitely not) "Respect"? Should you be afraid that we've stepped out of our comfort zone to boast? Should you be afraid that with our age, with how we've spent our time on this earth, that our live show will suffer? No, you should be afraid to blink. You won't want to miss a single second." - Nasir Jones

Nostalgia. Heartache. Youth. Lust for life. Strip those emotions down to sparse instrumentals and bare-bones folk, and you have Carousel Lights.

Carousel Lights aren't out to reinvent folk music; just to perfect it. Kristian Matsson, taking a break from his Tallest Man on Earth moniker, decided to pull together a full band to showcase his folksy storytelling in a full band environment. Skyler Skjelset will carry over his ace guitar playing from Fleet Foxes to work his style into Matsson's lyrical melodies, and Brian Bonz, who's used to backing big-name singers, (See also: Devine, Kevin) brings his chops on the keys and melodica to the forefront of the arrangement. The rhythm section of Chris Taylor and Tim Arnold, behind two heavyweight bands with heavy folk influences, will further flesh out the band's sound.

"This year is going to be huge for me. I'm putting out a new album later in the year, and I'm announcing today that myself, Prince, Alicia Keys, Tony Royster Jr, and Steve Tirpak have collaborated on an album and will be playing a few venues later in the year playing the album in it's entirety. We recorded about 30 different songs and 15 made the cut. Some people may look at us and think there's no way that such dynamic and influential personalities could come together and produce a cohesive product. Well they're wrong. This album is pop, it's R&B, and it's fast and it's slow. There are guitars, there's brass, wind instruments, so many different elements coming together to produce something incredible. There's not much more I can say about it. You have to wait and hear. The music is a journey. The music is an experience." -Justin Timberlake

So in case you were curious how I was able to ruin the potential of the individual members in my group, I'm going to let you know. Basically, I still felt like James Blake and Kendrick could work together by meeting somewhere in the middle to create a type of mellow, atmospheric hip-hop that I would enjoy, even if apparently no one else would. Before making my third pick I saw Numero10 mention how he had made the best James Blake band ever, and, remembering how great it was, decided I would look it up. That's when I realized I had nearly the exact same band that he had created planned out in my head (even with some of the exact same members), except my band had Kendrick Lamar. Then I realized that my idea sounded terrible and I wouldn't be able to salvage my band at all. TL;DR Don't vote for my band, as if you needed any convincing.

Due to Dan and Brian's deep tone my lead singer also had to have a deep enough tone to not sound out of place. Chris Martin ended up being my choice, any other choice (that came to mind) would've come from the wrong scene (but Brian is from..) Yeah, shut up. Aaron Lunsford's work in Via Coma, not As Cities Burn (thus, still amazing) is what made me choose him and Michael Weiss is, in my opinion, an exceptional guitarist. The music they will play will be a lot like music UK band 'Sharks' makes.

A brilliant mixture of Soul, R & B, Hip-Hop and pop. The Brassy Knoll came about as the result of a meeting between the two lead singers; Lianne La Havas and Rufus Wainwright. "I was a massive fan of Lianne's debut album", recalls Rufus Wainwright, "I invited her out to New York to work on a few tracks together, but I had no idea it would snowball into something this big". Indeed, when the pair met they found that they clicked perfectly with each other, both on a personal and musical level. Lianne remembers sitting with Rufus and discussing the next step, "I told him that we needed to do something more, make an album together and soon." From there, the duo decided to expand and recruit more members, with ?uestlove being their first port of call, who states "First time I heard the demos they sent me, I knew I had to be involved, this is going to be massive". Completing the group are New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty and legendary bassist Pino Palladino. The group take the best bits of their individual careers and blend them into one loud, exuberant, danceable and funky mix. The group combine Rufus and Lianne's vocals together for maximum effect and their voices are married with the fresh horns of Trombone Shorty and the superb rhythm section of Pino and ?uestlove.

Overcast From Giant Apes is an emo band fronted by Mike Kinsella. Their music often contains epic, slow, and moody build ups that breaks into very technical guitar work from Kinsella, accompanied by the perfect contrast back up vocals of Keith Latinen. Katie Shanholtzer-Dvorak plays a large role in creating the often "post-rock" influenced ambient sound scaped on her keys, and occasionally she will participate in back up vocals that adds a whole new dynamic to their emo sound . She does an excellent job of switching from emotional piano chords to ambient drone like atmospheres that create an eerie base for Kinsellas guitar work. Chris Hrasky (drums) and Nathan Whitman (bass) combined with Shanholtzer-Dvoraks keyboards create the perfect emo/moody base layer for Kinsella and Latinen to harmonize off of eachother, both vocally and on their guitars.
The over all sound of Overcast From Giant Apes could be described by the following: the mellow buildups of American Football with additional ambient soundscapes from keyboards or sometimes piano chords. The heart wrenching vocals/lyrics of Mike Kinsella being harmonized by Keith Latinen who also adds additional guitar work, making their sound even bigger. The post-rock like buildups being driven by the subtly increasing volume of Chris Hraskys drumming that we see so much of in Explosions In The Sky, being supported by a emo/post-rock veteran Nathan Whitman on bass. Nathan Whitman never has difficulty creating extremely technical and original bass lines over Kinsellas unique guitar tuning style.
Look out for their debut full length "I Would Shoot The Moon From The Ground I Stand On", coming this fall on Poly-Vinyl Records.

10. Girls With Low Self Esteem (SpyKi) – you’re band is a trainwreck but I’d watch that trainwreck and I like the name so you can have this one point, don’t think you’ll get another
9. Theseventhson – most 90’s indie
8. Overcast From Giant Apes (KenneyBN)
7. Sophos (stands for Some Obscure People Hate Our Songs) (Dustin Harkins) – why aretha why
6. A Good Beginning (sophos)
5. Chris92
4. Numero10
3. Justin Timberlake Presents The Experience (spiffa0)
2. The Brassy Knoll (georgedcc)
1. bandnamexmyname